The Crusader Storm: A Global History of the Wars for the Middle East

In 1187, Salah Ad-Din Ibn Ayub, Saladin, entered Jerusalem victorious after taking the city from the Crusaders, who had held the city since 1099. There was no great sacking of the city, Saladin accepted the formal surrender of the Crusaders and the geopolitical winds of the Middle East shifted. The complexity of what led to the Crusades, what sustained them, and what brought them to an end is explored in a new book by Nicholas Morton The Crusader Storm: A Global History of the Wars for the Middle East. A sweeping history that covers all the ways the Crusades altered the geopolitical landscape in rich detail, The Crusader Storm unravels the compelling story that gave us the middle ages’ most pressing conflict. 

The story of the crusades that pits European Christian against Middle Eastern Muslim is often told, but the actual story of the Crusades is more complex than this. After conquering Jerusalem and territory across the Levantine coast, Crusader states began administering over religious diverse populations. The Frankish rulers gave Muslims legal protections that meant they could practice their faith freely, but Muslims’ legal status was inferior to Christians as they did not possess the same rights and were required to pay a poll tax to the Franks. As Morton writes, “Many Muslim families lived for generations in Frankish territory, the relationship was rarely easy, and there was little to protect them from either a hostile landlord or the violent zealotry of newly arrived Crusaders.’ If you lived away from the borderlands of the Frankish state, Muslims enjoyed prolonged periods of peace and this might provide some insight as to why a significant number of Muslims did not leave the territory. 

That does not mean Frankish rule was totally just as one Hebrew commentator remarked while recalling the persecution and atrocities inflicted on the Jews by the Crusaders, “How is it that they have now been ruling in the [Holy] Land for a number of years, dwelling quietly, calmly, and happy! Beneath them, they trod upon the nations, and the pure [Jews] are terrified by the stability of the hostile [conquerors].” Indeed, The Crusader Storm offers accounts of the crusades and the transformation of the Middle East from a variety of different perspectives and sources. These include accounts written in Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, Latin, Armenian, Syriac and old French. The book captures how messy the politics of the wars were and paints a fairly global picture that weaves together Central Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe. 

Typically, the history of the Crusades starts with Pope Urban II’s speech at Clermont in 1095, while this is the formal start of the wars, it is not where the story actually begins. The trouble is there are so many things happening in the eleventh century, which give rise to the Crusades that knowing where to begin the story is a challenge. Some of the events initially seem less obvious, but upon reflection are consequential. Morton starts the story not in Europe or the Middle East but in Central Asia. Danqanqan near Merv in present day Turkmenistan 55-years before the launch of the First Crusade, saw a major battle that shifted international Medieval politics. A Persian-Islamic dynasty of Turkic origins, who had territorial holdings stretching from the Caspian Sea, Persia and India, the Ghaznavids, were suddenly confronted by a large grouping of Turkmen warriors. 

In 1040, the Ghaznavid ruler led an army to try and crush the Turkmen warriors, but the Turkmen defeated them and not long after seized the empire. These Turkmen pressed on until they took Anatolia and became known as the Seljuks, who founded their own empire. In 1073, the Seljuks seized Jerusalem and while the Seljuks were not particularly oppressive towards the local population, an uprising in 1077 against them was met with deadly force that saw thousands killed. Christians suffered greatly from this and Seljuks demands that Christian pilgrims pay heavy tolls further enraged them. Accounts of their suffering as well as Seljuks expansion into Anatolia served as a catalyst for the Pope to declare a crusade. Internal divisions in Europe also contributed to the decision, but as Morton points to, the Crusades were made up of a variety of different empires, peoples and stories, ‘The result was a messy cacophony of competing agendas, with each society trying to thrive, or at least survive, amidst the relentless churn of invasion and war.’ 

The Crusader Storm offers a panoramic view into the murky politics, cutthroat nature of alliances, shifting sands of interest and competing plots for power within states as well as against enemy states. The Crusades defy simplicity, the sheer complexity of characters and alliances means telling a compelling, but factual story of the wars is no easy task. Morton does both producing a book that is engaging, nuanced, detailed and easy to follow. The Crusader Storm is a much-needed introduction to the Crusades for the casual reader that leaves you understanding it better and wanting more. 

BOOK REVIEW: Producing Palestine: The Creative Production of Palestine Through Contemporary Media